


What do you do when you go away?

by D_f_m22



Series: Beach House Bliss [2]
Category: The Flight Attendant (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29698344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/D_f_m22/pseuds/D_f_m22
Summary: “What a load of bollocks,” Miranda said dismissively. “What is this really? Why do you have such an incessant need to make small talk?”“Why do you always give me the silent treatment when you return from a job!” Cassie replied, affronted. “You live with me! I worry about you when you’re not here, you can’t just slink off and then return and not say anything! It’s...you have people that love you now...”
Relationships: Cassie Bowden/Miranda Croft
Series: Beach House Bliss [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175408
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	What do you do when you go away?

**Author's Note:**

> A short piece looking at Miranda’s need to relax after a job. 
> 
> Feedback appreciated and prompts accepted

Miranda drank milky coffee. 

That was something that had surprised Cassie the most when they first moved in together.

Not the murder.

Not the irregular sleeping pattern (she still wasn’t sure when exactly Miranda slept).

Not the constant need to carry her butterfly knife like some kind of weird security blanket. 

No, the most surprising thing had been her penchant for milky coffee.

“I always thought you’d drink black coffee,” Cassie said, voicing her observations out loud. “You know, to fit with the aesthetic.” 

They were sat on their beach front veranda, Miranda lounged in the corner of the wicker bench; toned legs stretched out over Cassie’s lap. Cassie’s hands pressed gently into one of Miranda’s feet, fingers working their way up and down the pressure points as she tried to help the other woman relax. Miranda had only returned from a few days away on “business” that morning. Cassie really didn’t (but totally did) want to know what her girlfriend had been up to for the last few days, but she didn’t dare to ask. To her relief, the brunette had returned unscathed and that suggested that it had been an easy job or she’d stuck to the admin side of her job. So, instead of asking the pertinent questions (did you kill anyone? Did you steal anything? Did you get hurt?), Cassie found herself asking the mundane. 

In truth, she’d ask anything to get Miranda to open up. Where as Cassie felt the constant need to talk, Miranda was like a closed book. That was especially the case when she returned from a job. It was like she had to cocoon inwards to get over a job before returning to the real world. 

“What?” Miranda asked, looking up at Cassie as she placed her sunglasses atop her head. With her return to the tropical island, Miranda’s hair had already started to frizz with humidity so for ease the woman had braided it into two loose plaits. Cassie thought she looked adorable (not that she’d ever dare to voice that opinion) and the sheer black pullover she’d chosen to wear over her bikini just added to the look. She couldn’t look further from the woman that had held a gun to her head in broad daylight in a New York alleyway. “What aesthetic?” 

“You know,” Cassie said instantly, pleased to have hooked Miranda into a conversation. It was the most she’d said since her return. “The ‘I’m a scary murder lady that dresses in black and drinks coffee as dark as my soul’ aesthetic.” 

Miranda’s face fell as she looked at Cassie. 

“You think my soul is black?” She asked, lips quirked as she placed her ‘psychologies’ magazine down. Cassie glanced at the cover and read the headline: “How to keep your cool in tough situations.” Her heart swelled a little with how hard Miranda was trying to improve. 

“No! No honey, of course not. I know what you’re like. I just think that others...sometimes...”

“Gotcha!” Miranda exclaimed, sitting up animatedly as she reached forward and bopped Cassie on the nose. It was an uncharacteristic playful side to Miranda that she was certain very few people were allowed to see. “Did you know your concerned face is very similar to your orgasm face. It’s sweet.” 

Cassie scowled, scrunching her nose up and shaking her head. 

“Right, thanks for that information that I have no idea what to do with...” Cassie said. “But seriously, why do you drink such milky coffee? Is it in case of poison- you know I read once that milk could act as a remedy to poison...”

“What a load of bollocks,” Miranda said dismissively. “What is this really? Why do you have such an incessant need to make small talk?” 

“Why do you always give me the silent treatment when you return from a job!” Cassie replied, affronted. “You live with me! I worry about you when you’re not here, you can’t just slink off and then return and not say anything! It’s...you have people that love you now...”

“How do you know I didn’t have people that loved me before?” Miranda asked abruptly.

Cassie paused and waited for the ‘gotcha!’ Moment. 

It didn’t arrive. 

“I...I mean,” Cassie stammered as she let go of Miranda’s foot. “I don’t. I know very little about your life before me.”

Miranda nodded. “Exactly and that’s intentional. I love you Cassie. It’s because I love you that I need to keep my worlds separate. I compartmentalise, I have to in my world of work. You are my life, that is my work. If the two things cross, it can get very dangerous.” 

Cassie blinked, wondering if the woman had any idea how goddamn romantic she sounded. 

“Right, but I worry about you when you come home from a job. You go so quiet. I just...I know what it’s like to lose yourself in your own mind. After Alex...”

Miranda cocked an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting I’m talking to a dead man in my mind?” 

“No!” Cassie exclaimed. “No... I just. Jeeze, Miranda. I just want you to be okay. I want to know more about the woman I’m sharing my life with.”

Miranda sat up straighter and rolled her shoulders; letting out the tension that resided there. 

“I killed someone on this trip,” Miranda admitted. “It was an easy hit, they were child sex trafficker, worst kind of human. Still, killing people doesn’t get any easier. I’m not a psychopath, I never have been. I don’t kill people without thinking about it. I know that now I’m the boss, I could send some newbies out on jobs like that but I don’t want to. There was a time when I could count the amount of people I’d killed on one hand. Those days are long gone, but they’re not for some of the kids I have working for me. It’s not an easy job and I can’t always just switch off. Even if it looks like I can. When I get home, I need to decompress.”

Cassie listened, absorbing everything she could about what Miranda was saying. She bit back the urge to check that the people now working for Miranda weren’t literal children and pulled Miranda’s hands towards her lips; kissing the knuckles one by one. 

“I think I can help with that,” Cassie said. “Even if it means making you milky coffee.”


End file.
